Hi Chris
I found a partial answer to how to set the timezone.
I added an export line right after the export path line in /etc/profile and now when I run date from the console, the time zone is correct.
Some strange things.
After reading through the scripts in init.d and extensive searching on the Internet, I tried replacing the /etc/localtime file with /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh from another Linux system, but it didn't work even though the /etc/init.d/rcS script should have read it. Also strange is that the board shows the correct time when I run date +%H:%M:%S from the console (using SSH ) but when I run system("date '+%H:%M:%S' > /home/root/date.txt"); in the sketch I sent you earlier, it comes back with UTC time.
In any case I hope someone is collecting all of the things users are discovering and will but them in a FAQ file.
Such as to change the hostname of the system you need to edit /etc/hostname.
Another option would be to develop a program like raspi-config on the raspberry pi to set the configurations.
thanks
rgb